Mitt Romney Claims He's Doubling, Not Quadrupling, The Size Of His Beach Mansion

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2012 presidential candidate clarified his much-maligned La Jolla, Calif. beach house expansion this weekend, telling a New Hampshire Union Leader reporter that he is doubling, not quadrupling, the living space of his oceanfront mansion.

Romney told the Union Leader publisher Joe McQuaid that the application, submitted two years ago, was to double the living space by adding a second story. The "quadrupling" of the square-footage, reported earlier this month by the San Diego Union Tribune, is a measurement of added non-living space, like a basement and a garage. Real estate brokers typically list the square footage of a home's living area, rather than the entire structure.

While McQuaid writes that this is a salient distinction, it seems more like an issue of semantics. Romney is still replacing a 3,009-square-foot mansion with an 11,062-square-foot mansion. Whether voters should care is up to them to decide.